Dear WT Community,

In our message to the community last week regarding the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more, we expressed our support for the Black community, recognizing the systemic racism that is still active in this country. That support did not go far enough to demonstrate our belief at WT that Black Lives Matter.

In the days since we sent that message, we have heard from our students and alumnae/i about their own experiences of racism, inequity, bias, and prejudice at Winchester Thurston School.

We apologize for the trauma caused by those experiences, and we acknowledge that WT has too often turned a blind eye to injustice. We have a moral obligation to serve all students with equity.

In order to help our community heal, to create lasting change, to provide a safe learning environment, and, to openly affirm all Black members of our community, including students, parents, alumnae/i, and employees, we commit to:

Move away from silence and engage in courageous conversations
Invite and engage our alumnae/i in the work of reconciliation and healing
Identify and implement processes and systems that safely allow students and employees to report, and immediately and appropriately respond to, instances of racism and bias in order to seek to protect our Black students and minimize ongoing harm
Develop the processes by which we regularly review our curriculum and student activities to promote positive racial identity development
Refine our hiring and retention processes to increase the number of Black administrators, faculty, and staff
Re-examine and reconsider existing disciplinary policies and practices
Complete an institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion assessment with an external consulting firm
Require Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work be included in each employee's professional development plan, annual goals, and evaluation
Evaluate our list of vendors to support minority-owned businesses whenever possible
As selected by our Upper School students, and led by Black student leaders, support organizations dedicated to the work of anti-racism
Communicate more frequently about our work to create an anti-racist community

These are just our first steps to build a more equitable community and an anti-racist culture. We know that this is lifelong work, and there will be times when we succeed and times when we will make mistakes. We are grateful for your continued engagement with us. We acknowledge the challenge before us, and look forward to working together toward an even brighter, more equitable WT.

Be well,

Scott